Football federations FIFA and UEFA may win a boost for their bid to stop top clubs joining a breakaway Super League after a legal adviser to the European Union’s highest court said competition rules shouldn’t prevent them from punishing rebels.
The Court of Justice should rule that antitrust law doesn’t prevent FIFA and UEFA from barring clubs that try to set up a separate league from their own tournaments and also doesn’t contradict FIFA’s exclusive marketing rights, Advocate General Athanasios Rantos said in an opinion Thursday. While the court aide’s opinion isn’t binding, it’s often followed by judges in their final rulings.
Sports federations can stop athletes from competing in alternative tournaments under some circumstances without violating competition law, according to a separate opinion from Rantos on the International Skating Union’s challenge to an antitrust decision that criticized it for excluding speed skaters from its competitions.
In that case, Rantos advises judges to send the case back to the General Court because restricting skaters to one federation’s tournaments can be justified if it is needed to ensure a “legitimate ‘sporting’ objective.”
If confirmed by a final ruling in 2023, Rantos’ views on the Super League would uphold UEFA and FIFA control over the sport. He said prior approval for any breakaway league is “appropriate and necessary” for them to run the sport.
A dozen of Europe’s leading football clubs launched the proposed Super League in April 2021, but the project collapsed after several clubs pulled out following two days of vociferous opposition from fans, high-profile players and coaches, other clubs and politicians.
Organizers of the rebel competition, however, promptly complained to a Madrid court that UEFA and FIFA were running an illegal monopoly in European football. The Madrid court referred the case to Luxembourg, and the EU’s top court heard arguments in July 2021.
The cases are C-333/21 European Superleague Company and C-124/21 P International Skating Union.
